The present invention relates to improvements to a flanged three-way butterfly valve.
Flanged butterfly valves are frequently employed to replace ball or gate valves in a variety of applications, such as in HVAC systems, hot and cold domestic water systems, compressed air and hydrocarbon systems, vacuum systems, and other commercial applications. Butterfly valves have the advantage of providing a lighter weight valve with easier operation. They also provide a positive shut-off and high pressure operation while having a compact design. By providing flanges on the housing of a butterfly valve, they can be employed in a system to replace existing gate and ball valves having such connections to the system. Although three-way butterfly valves have been proposed, none provide universal application by allowing a left or right hand installation. That is, the valve actuators and linkage between a pair of such valves in a housing have been located on the same side, thereby requiring separate left hand and right hand designs for such valves.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a universal three-way flanged butterfly valve which can control the flow of a fluid from one source selectively to two different destinations or throttle the flow rate between the two.